NANODES. 120 



Epidendrum Obrienianum. 



E. crfcfuni X E. radicauK. 

 Stems as in Epidpudrum rad/'ca/is, emitting wliite cord-like lirandiino- 

 roots, 12 — 20 inches long. Flowers 1|- inches in diameter, of a 

 uniform bright carmine, the calli on the lip bright yellow ; sepals and 

 petals oblong-lanceolate, longer than in E. ereduin, less narrowed at 

 the base than in E. nidicans ; lij) with three fringed lobes, as in 

 both parents, the front lobe bipartite ; crest consisting of two erect 

 large teeth with two smaller ones behind them, and a rounded keel in 

 front and between them. 



Epidendrmn Obrienianum, Rolfe in Gard. Chron. III. s. 3 (1888), p. 770. 



Sub-genus NANODES. 



Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1832, t. 1541. 

 Nanodes was founded by Lindley upon a small-flowered species* 

 introduced from Rio de Janeiro, in 1829, by the Horticultural 

 Society of London, with which Reichenbach afterwards joined the 

 far more curious and attractive species described below. With 

 these may be grouped two other species inhabiting the Andes 

 of Central and South America, one of which, Epidendrum [Nanodes] 

 MaWievisii, has been in cultivation for some time past in the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew.t The type species, JV". discolor, and A. Mediisce, were 

 doubtfully referred to Epidendrum by Bentham, to which they 

 conform as regards the union of the lip and the column, but their 

 stems, prostrate in the first named species, and pendulous in N. 

 Medusce, furnished with fleshy glaucous leaves, impart to them a 

 habit so distinct from all the cultivated Epidendra that for horti- 

 cultural purposes it is better to keep them separate. J 



Epidendrum (Nanodes) Medusae. 



Stems tufted, quite pendulous, as thick as the little finger, 6 — 10 

 inches long, sheathed by the imbricating bases of the leaves. Leaves 

 fleshy, lanceolate, acute, 2 — 3 inches long, glaucous green, Flowers 

 3 inches across vertically, solitary or in pairs, terminal, with short terete 

 bent ovaries that are pale green spotted with purple ; sepals linear-ol)long 

 acute, keeled behind, vinous-red in the middle, green at the base and 



* Nanodes discolor, now rarely seen in cultivation. Tlie name Nanodes (I'ai'wcj/r) 

 is the Greek word for pigmy. 



t Gard. Chron. XXVI. (1886), p. 459. 



X These characters, distinct as tliej- are from a horticultural point of view, are of sectional 

 value ouly. The above-mentioned species form the sub-section Xaiw: of Bentham under 

 Epidendrum, Gen. Plant. III. p. 531. 



